Featured Artist: 35 Days In May

CD Title: Bobo Bazinsky In The Bronx

Year: 2007

Record Label: New Indie Artistsw

Style: Fusion

Musicians:

Jeff Kaye (arrangements, compositions, production, all instrument), Sal DeRaffelle (bass), Paul Carr (sax), Jim Kiser (trumpet), Sean Russell (co-production & engineering), Alexe Colbus (vocals)

Review:

35 Days in May is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and arranger Jeff Kaye, who garners the assistance of trumpeter Jim Kiser, saxophonist Paul Carr and others.  Nonetheless, the leader doesn’t opt for a status quo type of game plan.  With the cartoon-like album title, Kaye’s synth-heavy and somewhat frenetic jazz-fusion processes combine elements of Weather Report with electro-house beats, jazzy choruses and more. 

The leader fuses quirky, electronics-based motifs with fragmented sequences and programmatic rhythmic pulses, noticed for example on the Tangerine Dream-style piece titled “20 Blind 20.” Here, Kaye morphs synth chord voicings atop a prominent bass line.  Otherwise, he deconstructs the standard “There Is No Greater Love” with jazz piano phrasings and a few EFX drenched meltdowns.  With that, he executes a sequence of lively dreamscapes, topped off with cascading acoustic-electric background treatments and abrupt deviations from a given theme. 

Vocalist Alexe Colbus imparts alien vocal overlays on George and Ira Gershwin’s classic “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” which is a cover version that sparks notions of a DJ remix.  On this piece, Kaye once again delves into deconstruction mode via buzzing electronics sounds and sonorous electric-piano voicings.  Ultimately, he keeps it rather short and sweet as the album clocks in at a hair under 40 minutes.  In effect, Kaye merges a bit of schmaltz with solid musicianship and a seemingly endless flow of ideas that most assuredly conveys his undeniably active thought-processes.

In sum, it’s a concisely illustrated work of music that could have fallen victim to a sense of overkill, especially if he decided to stretch this into perhaps 60 or more minutes of CD space. And while a majority of these movements seem to bounce all over the place, often laced with a rather neurotic edge, Kaye does present more than just a few cleverly articulated propositions.

Record Label Website: http://www.newindieartists.com

Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita

Click here for printer-friendly version of review.

Send this page to a friend.